Mathematics with Jenny Feaster
Students have been working diligently in their math courses to keep pace. Many of the students have been able to meet their semester requirements and several others are working ahead of schedule.
English with Jill Sugg
Students in Advanced Placement Literature and English 8/9 Advanced read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Students did a timed in-class writing assignment on Hawthorne's use of symbolism and characterization to facilitate theme. AP students had writing mini-conferences on their individual strengths and weaknesses at Barnes & Noble where they also drank coffee and perused the shelves.
English 7/8/9 finished the adolescent novel Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, and we all wrote notes to author Jordan Sonnenblick. He wrote us a nice collective e-mail response back and even wrote to some students personally. Students used the last week of the module to revise their Academic Fair papers per the feedback they received on their rough drafts and to read their AR books. Students got a 25 word vocabulary list which we went over in class. They will be tested on these words on Friday, December 4th.
Thank you to everyone for all their work on Academic Fair papers and presentations.
English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm
American History: Students have examined four major events in the early history of the American republic: the Whiskey Rebellion, the Alien and Sedition Acts, Marbury v. Madison, and the War of 1812.
Civics: Students have concluded a unit on the future of US policy in Afghanistan and moved on to a brief unit on the War on Drugs. Students looked in-depth at the current controversy over medical marijuana policy in California and other states that have disregarded federal law on the issue.
Current events: Students have learned some basics of US government in the context of health care reform and US policy regarding Afghanistan. We have also started to discuss some basic economic concepts, including scarcity, choice, opportunity cost, and supply and demand.
English 10/11/12: Students have wrapped up The Handmaid's Tale and have finally concluded their two dystopian novels for the year, much to their relief. More importantly, they have finished Academic Fair and the class looks forward to diving full-steam into their post-Thanksgiving reading and writing.
World History: Students learned about Eastern religion and cultures, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.
Science with Lori Hilliard
Environmental Science: We have made the transition from conservation to evolution in the last module. Students watched the movie Gorillas In the Mist about the acclaimed researcher Diane Fossey and her work with Gorillas.
Human Biology: The study of the skeletal system has been the focus of the last module. Students completed their first oral exam by identifying the major bones of the human body. We are also having great fun learning medical terminology. I am very proud of these students for their dedication and hard work.
Chemistry: Mole concept and equation writing have been the focus of the last module. Students also completed labs to reinforce the concepts covered.
Biology: Successful completion of our study of cellular respiration focusing on the ever popular yet somewhat confusing Krebs cycle took up most of the last module. The students were amazing troopers and powered through the concept with pride.
Physics with Dan Hill
Module 4 saw the physics class looking at forces and Newton's 2.5 laws of motion (the first one is actually Gallileo's, and is rendered redundant by the second). You should ask them to flex their by-now-well-developed Right Triangle Trigonometry muscles for you. Next module we will pick up momentum, and hope to carry it through the Winter Break (ha, ha!).
Spanish with Celia Battle
Introduction to Spanish—Students have studied Episodes 3, 4 and, 5 of Destinos as they follow the protagonist to Sevilla, Spain. They have learned about the geography, history and culture of southern Spain and are studying the present tense conjugation of -ar verbs.
Spanish 2 (Destinos)—Students have studied Episode 35 of Destinos, are reading a brief novel, El sueño de Linda, and continue to learn about Latin American countries. We are also studying verb tenses and reviewing grammar.
Intermediate Spanish—Students finished reading the brief novel ¿Dónde está Eduardo?, learned all of the new vocabulary and wrote and performed skits related to the plot. They continue to write on the class blog and have learned vocabulary about illnesses in general and swine flu in particular. As an extra activity the students summarized their Academic Fair projects in Spanish and presented them to the class.
Advanced Spanish —Advanced students continue to be engaged daily in stimulating discussions about philosophy, current events, and many other topics of interest to the class. They have reviewed the use of grammar in their writings and presented summaries in Spanish of their Academic Fair projects.
Physical Education with Krista Moll
As usual, Upper School has continued to work hard with their fitness classes. I've incorporated a variety of exercises and modifications to keep the students engaged as well as challenged. Recently, they have also completed a short activity, breaking down their diets and taking a look at the nutritional content.
Art with Brittain Peck
Module 4 has given each student the opportunity to re-address the concept of "school photos", however this time it has been in the manner of their choosing. Working as each others' photographers and models, each student was able to plan, compose, and shoot his or her photo in a manner that he or she felt best reflected his or her relationship to school and his or her concept of self. We began by reviewing the basics of lighting, composition, point-of-view, and cropping as these concepts relate to photography. Once the students had each had an opportunity to shoot each others' photos, we began to work with the photos in a digital format. The computer provided students the ability to edit their own photos for the purposes of their choosing, while also re-establishing their understanding of basic visual concepts of light contrast, saturation, and color relationships. Throughout the entire photographic process of capturing and editing their photos, the students have been encouraged to consider the intended presentation and audience for their photos, whether it be as a poster, music album cover art, or for publication in the Camelot Academy year book. I have been both pleased and impressed with the level of attention and interest that each student has shown over the duration of this module. I am also enthusiastic about the future possibilities for the students to continue to work with photo editing and manipulation in programs such as Adobe Photoshop. Students will continue to work with photos, as well as text layout and graphic design in Module 5. Students that are interested in working on the development of the school year book will also have the opportunity to apply this skill set in a tangible publication.
Music with Daniel Raimi
Upper School has been focused this module on finishing up our Garage Band programming of the song "Should I Stay or Should I Go." At this point, most students have finished programming the computer to perform the song. Our next step is to write original lyrics and record them so that we can get the songs up on YouTube! 10–12 graders have already begun this process, and 7–9 will get going with it before the holidays.
After we've finished recording our original versions of "Should I Stay or Should I Go," I'm going to give students special assignments to present a song or piece of music that has an interesting political or social story behind it. More on that to come next week.
Drama with Roni Peterson
During Module 4, we have been working on monologues. The students performed the monologue as though they were actors and I was the director. I gave them direction on how to use the five "W's" of acting—who, what, where,when, and why. The 5 "W's" are the basis for all acting exercises. By thinking of the "W's", it forces the actor to understand more fully the character he or she is portraying, and the performance truly changes for the better. I was very impressed with the commitment the students put into this assignment.
We have started an exercise that teaches how to have a beginning, a middle and an end when doing an improvisation. One student starts by making a statement like, "It's a lovely day." The next student will then say, "What you are saying is that it's a lovely day, so I will..." and then they add something that would logically come next like, "So I will go for a walk." The next student will then say, "What you are saying is that you will take a walk, so I will..." and so forth. Each statement must move the story along logically and come to an end. We will continue using this exercise during Module 5.
Another exercise we have started is picking a word out of a bag and then having two students use their word in an improvisation. They must say the word sometime during the scene and I emphasize that the improvisation should have a logical beginning, middle and end. To make it harder, we go from two students to three, then four, and so on. It is a challenge to be able to use random words logically in an improvisation.
In the 10th through 12th grade class, we are watching the movie Doubt. It is adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning play, and I am showing it because of the incredible acting. All of the main actors were nominated for Academy Awards. I feel it is important to expose the students to movies where acting and story are foremost and not the special effects. We will continue watching this movie in Module 5 as it takes a few periods due to the length of the film.
During Module 5, I will be handing out various comic strips cut out of the newspaper, and we'll use those as prompts for the students to take the characters and create a short scene. We will also be working with "Open Scenes".
Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach
CLUB CLASS
This module was primarily concerned with preparing for the Academic Fair performance. We decided on the two songs to perform, worked hard on hearing the correct harmonies as well as our presentation, and did what I felt was a terrific performance at the fair. I look forward to working on some holiday music when we return from fall break, and then finishing up on the other songs we've been working on, as well as starting some new material suggested by the students.
CREDIT CLASS
This module was primarily concerned with preparing for the Academic Fair performance. We decided on the three songs to perform, worked hard on hearing the correct harmonies, playing together as a band, sharpening and augmenting our instrumental solos, and thinking about and practicing our visual presentation. The activity culminated in what was an excellent performance at the fair. We also continued to add measures to "Roundabout," and to flesh out the vocal parts on the song as well. We had a very helpful vocal session with Viola and Olivia, with Lennon accompanying, when the other band members were absent, and got a good handle on the harmony parts, gaining confidence in the art of singing harmonies together. I look forward to working on some holiday music when we return from fall break, and then finishing up on the other songs we've been working on, as well as starting some new material suggested by the students.
